Three dental colleges in the State were permitted by the Madras High Court to begin the admission process as per the existing laws under the management quota alone for MDS course for 2012-13, on Wednesday.
Modifying an interim order passed on April 27 this year, a vacation Bench consisting of justices V Dhanapalan and B Rajendran said as regards the apportionment of seats, the vacate injunction petitioners should follow the ratio as per the laws/regulations in force. The court made it clear that the present order was subject to the outcome of a pending public interest writ petition.
In view of the urgency involved in the case and also the fact that counsel requested for early disposal of the PIL, the bench posted the matter in the last week of June to dispose of the same by giving top priority.
Originally, the Indian Dental Association (IDA) had filed a PIL seeking a direction to the authorities to ensure and to hold admission of students to post-graduation courses strictly as per laws and regulations based on the merit list published by the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University.
On April 27, the court admitted the writ petition and granted an interim injunction restraining the private dental colleges from conducting admission to post-graduation courses, except based on the merit rank list published by the university.
Two colleges, KSR Institute of Dental Science and Research, Tiruchengode, and JKK Natarajah Dental College and Hospital, Komarapalayam, Namakkal district, filed petitions to suspend the injunction order.
Sri Mookambika Institute of Dental Sciences, Kulasekharam, Kanyakumari district, filed a similar petition.
The concern of the colleges was that in view of the injunction, they were unable to proceed with the admission process.

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Madras high court to direct the private dental colleges to ensure and conduct admission of students to the postgraduation courses strictly as per the laws and regulations based on the merit-based rank list published by the Director of Medical Education (DME) and consequently direct the state government to monitor and supervise the admission process to ensure proper transparent and merit-based admission.

A division bench, comprising justices K.K. Sasi­dharan and R. Karuppiah, before whom the PIL filed by Indian Dental Asso­ciation by its state legal cell co-convener, Dr (ex-Major) V. Murali came up for hearing, ordered notice to the state government, Dr M.G.R. Medical University, DME, Dental Council of India (DCI) and 14 private dental colleges in the state and posted to June 3 further hearing of the case.

According to the petitioner, as per the regulations governing admission pro­cess for the present academic year, as published by DCI, in non-governmental institutions 50 per cent of the total seats should be filled by the competent authority and the remaining 50 per cent by the management on the basis of merit. The admission in respect of MDS courses in government quota was vide a common entrance test, which was widely publicised and conducted transparently by DME at the behest of the TN government in consonance with the DCI notification.

In the present academic year, over 1,000 students appeared for the examination and a rank list was published and admissions were expected to be conducted based on the list. But several colleges have not been following due and transparent process to admit students, for reasons best known to them.